Two Little Women Part 25

Not a motor boat or craft of any kind that might lend a.s.sistance was in sight. They were at the extreme upper end of the lake and most of the camps were farther down. Vainly Dolly scanned the water for a boat of any kind, but saw none. Bravely she pulled at the big oars, but she was not an athletic girl, and having been laid up so long with a broken leg her muscles were weak.

She pulled as hard as she could, in a straight line toward the canoe, but though she succeeded in lessening the distance between them she could not get very near the baby, for the canoe drifted steadily away.

At last, by almost superhuman efforts, she came within a few feet of the child, and then fearing to b.u.mp into the canoe and upset it, she turned around and tried to back water gently. But the big oars were ungainly and the task was not easy.

Moreover, Gladys was overjoyed at seeing Dolly in the other boat and she expressed her joy by leaning over the side of the canoe.

Dolly's heart seemed to stop beating as she saw the wobbly little boat careen with the laughing baby leaning far over the edge. She knew she must not alarm the child and so in a desperate endeavour to speak naturally, she called out, "Sit up straight, baby; see how straight you can sit!"

"So straight!" and Gladys emphasised her straightness by putting both arms up in the air.

"Yes, dear. Now fold your arms and sit straight."

Gladys obeyed and folded her chubby arms and sat motionless right in the middle of the canoe.

Dolly's heart bounded with thankfulness as with aching arms she pushed her way nearer the drifting canoe. She was moving stern first and tried to manoeuvre to try to come up sideways against the canoe. Then if she could lift the baby safely into her own flat-bottomed boat she would be content to drift about until help came.

How many times she tried! But just as her boat would near the other, a chance current or a puff of wind would take the canoe just out of her reach. Paddling now with one oar she came very near the unsteady little craft, so near that Gladys suddenly decided to jump into Dolly's boat.

The child scrambled to her knees and leaned over the side of the canoe till she was almost in the water.

"Sit down!" screamed Dolly frantically, forgetting the danger of suddenness.

Gladys was startled and instead of sitting down leaned farther over the edge, and the canoe capsized!

Dolly's face blanched, her oars dropped from her hands and every muscle in her body went limp. Then the impulse came to jump in the water after the child. Seizing the row-lock, she was about to plunge, blindly, heedlessly, but obeying the irresistible impulse, when something white appeared on the water, right at her very side. It was Gladys's white dress, and Dolly made a grab for it just as it was again about to sink from sight.

She held on firmly, though it seemed as if her strength was ebbing rapidly away.

She strove with all her might to pull the baby into her own boat, but she could not lift the heavy child over the edge. How glad she was now that she was in the big flat-bottomed boat, which was in little if any danger of upsetting.

Not knowing whether the baby was dead or alive, she hung on to the precious burden, still trying to lift her over the edge, but unable to do so. It was all she could do to keep her grasp on the wet clothing and keep the child's head above water as the eddies tossed her boat around on the rough surface of the lake. The waves were choppy and every time she would nearly succeed in lifting the baby in, a sudden lurch would almost make her lose her grip.

It was when at last she almost felt the little form slipping from her grasp that she heard the chug-chug of a motor boat and a cheery, loud voice sang out, "Hang on, Dolly; hang on! All right, we're coming!"

Dolly didn't dare look up, but with her last ounce of strength she hung on to the baby's white dress, which she had already torn to ribbons in her clutches. She heard the swift oncoming of the motor boat and feared lest its waves might even yet wash the little form away that she held so insecurely. She refused to lift her eyes as the sound of the engine grew louder and she felt a sickening fear of the first waves that might reach her from the motor boat.

To her dismay she felt her hold loosening. Her muscles were powerless longer to stand the strain of the baby's weight. She heard the motor and she felt, or imagined she did, the first of the rhythmic waves that would, she felt certain, as they grew stronger, tear the child from her grasp. In desperation she bunched up a portion of the little white dress and leaning her head down clinched it firmly in her teeth.

But even as she did so, she knew she could not hold it there. The wet cloth choked her, and the water dashed in her face and blinded her. A sickening conviction came to her that it was all over and in another instant little Gladys would fall away from her helpless hands, and drown.

But to her ears there came a sound of a human voice. Not a shout, not even a loud call, but a calm, pleasant voice close to her, that said: "All right Dolly! Let go. You have saved Gladys!"

Mechanically obeying, though scarcely knowing what she did, Dolly opened her teeth and as the baby slid from her numbed fingers the child was grasped by strong arms, and Mr. Rose's face appeared to Dolly's view. He had swum from the motor boat, and now holding Gladys in one arm he hung on to the row boat with the other.

"Take her in," he said, as he lifted the child over the edge into the boat.

The reaction brought back Dolly's lost nerve. Gladly she received the little form in her arms and in another moment Mr. Rose had himself scrambled, big and dripping, into the boat also.

"You little trump!" he exclaimed; "you brick! you heroine! Let me take the baby. Why, she's all right!"

Gladys, though she had been partly unconscious, while in the water, was really unharmed and as Mr. Rose held her to him she opened her eyes and smiled.

Swiftly the motor boat came and took the three on board, and dragging the row boat behind them, they made quickly for the sh.o.r.e.

"Well, I swan!" exclaimed Long Sam, who was at the wheel, "if you Dolly ain't the rippenest little mortal! However you managed to keep a grip on that there kid is more'n I can tell!"

"I'm sure I can't tell you," and Dolly smiled, out of sheer happiness at Gladys' safety.

They reached the sh.o.r.e in a few moments and Mrs. Rose was there with a big blanket in which to wrap the baby while they carried her up to the house. Sarah the nurse was there, and soon Gladys, warmed and fed and arrayed in dry clothes, was p.r.o.nounced by all to be none the worse for her thrilling experience.

Dolly, however, was exhausted. Mrs. Rose, after leaving the baby to the nurse, hurried Dolly home and put her to bed.

"Yes, my dear," she said as Dolly objected; "you have an ordeal to go through with as heroine of this occasion. When Mrs. Norris comes home, she will come over here to give you a medal for bravery and heroism and general life-saving attributes. So you must go to bed now and get rested up to receive her thanks. You're going to have a cup of hot broth and a good rest and perhaps a nap, and you'll wake up just as bright and happy as ever."

And Mrs. Rose's treatment was just what Dolly needed. She slept an hour or more and then awoke to find Dotty's black eyes gazing into her own.

"You beautiful, splendid Dollyrinda!" she exclaimed. "You're a Red Cross heroine and a Legion of Honour Girl and I don't know what all!"

"Nonsense, Dot; I didn't do any more than you did. If you hadn't had the gumption to run and get your father, Gladys would--well,--things would have been different."

"It was all my fault, though," and the tears came into Dotty's eyes. "I did the wrong in putting the baby in the canoe in the first place."

"I did that just as much as you did. We both did wrong there, I expect.

And we both did wrong in scrabbling over the rope. Oh, we did wrong all right, but neither of us was worse than the other. What will Mrs. Norris say to us?"

"She's here now," said Dotty, "waiting for you to come down. She doesn't blame us, she blames Sarah for going away and leaving the baby."

"That isn't fair!" and Dolly sprang out of bed; "we told Sarah she could go. Tie up my hair, please, Dotty, I want to go down and tell Mrs.

Norris all about it."

But as it turned out, Mrs. Norris was so glad and happy that little Gladys was safe, that she wouldn't allow the two D's to be blamed at all. And as the girls besought her not to blame the nurse, for what had really been their doing, they all agreed to ignore the question of blame and dwell only on their gladness and happiness at the safety of everybody concerned.

CHAPTER XII

WHO WAS THE TALL PHANTOM?

"What _is_ a phantom party?" asked Dolly.

"Oh, it's lots of fun," Dotty replied; "everybody is rigged up in sheets, with a head-thing made of a pillow-case, and a little white mask over your face, so n.o.body knows you."

"Can I go?" asked Genie, her black eyes dancing.

"No," said her mother, "you're too young, dearie, this party of Edith Holmes' is an evening party; it begins at seven o'clock and only the big girls can go to it."